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ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin
@ruha9.bsky.social
40K followers 830 following 210 posts

✍🏽 • RACE AFTER TECHNOLOGY: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code • VIRAL JUSTICE: How We Grow the World We Want • IMAGINATION: A Manifesto 📚www.ruhabenjamin.com

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Ruha Benjamin is a sociologist and professor in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. She works on the relationship between innovation and equity, particularly the intersection of race, justice, and technology. Benjamin authored People's Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier (2013), Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (2019), and Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (2022). .. more

Biology 32%
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Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Oct 18
My latest on “The New Artificial Intelligentsia,” part of the Legacies of Eugenics series in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Thanks to all who read + share! lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
The New Artificial Intelligentsia | Los Angeles Review of Books
In the fifth essay of the Legacies of Eugenics series, Ruha Benjamin explores how AI evangelists wrap their self-interest in a cloak of humanistic concern.
lareviewofbooks.org

Reposted by Ruha Benjamin

sunrisemvmt.bsky.social
Sunrise Movement @sunrisemvmt.bsky.social · 2d
We condemn the illegal invasion of Venezuela, and we condemn the fossil fuel corruption that led us here. Young people — once again — are the ones that oil billionaires will feed into the meatgrinder of an unjust, imperialist war.

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · 4d
“The following is how I explain my AI policy to my technology-ethics class, to help get their buy-in at the very start.”

emergingethics.substack.com/p/why-were-n...
Why We’re Not Using AI in This Course, Despite Its Obvious Benefits
A reading for your students
emergingethics.substack.com

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · 4d
🙌🏾🎊

Reposted by Ruha Benjamin

jesstheemess.blacksky.app
jess @jesstheemess.blacksky.app · 4d
Starting 2026 off right with @thestorygraph.com's January Pages Challenge and @ruha9.bsky.social ✨

#BookSky
An image of the book cover for Imagination: A Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin. Features an image of a black femme with a beautiful braided hairstyle adorned with flowers.

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · 5d
Here u go! bsky.app/profile/ruha...
ruha9.bsky.social Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · May 1
“There is a reason, after all, that some people wish to colonize the moon, and others dance before it as before an ancient friend.” —Baldwin’s words grounded my Tanner lectures at Harvard, “Imagining Beyond the Artificial Intelligentsia”🤖

Lecture 1, Who Owns the Future? youtu.be/ZseJigkUhuE?...
Tanner Lecture One with Ruha Benjamin
YouTube video by Mahindra Humanities Center
youtu.be

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · 7d
“…but it also forces us into a position where we are adapting our professional practices to the latest tool rather than letting our pedagogical goals determine which technologies, and which uses of them, belong in our classrooms.” 2/2

Reposted by Hilary J. Allen

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · 7d
“Accepting this story of AI’s inevitability — or that of any technology — is a grave mistake for educators. Not only does it cede tremendous power to tech companies that are unaccountable to teachers, students, or school communities…” 1/2

kappanonline.org/teach-like-a...
Teach like a Luddite - Kappan Online
Embracing new technologies that don’t advance teaching and learning is a mistake. Educators must ask questions — and resist when necessary.
kappanonline.org

Reposted by Ruha Benjamin, Rebecca Williams, Dana R. Fisher

unicornriot.bsky.social
Unicorn Riot @unicornriot.bsky.social · 17d
NEW: Data Centers, the Climate Crisis, and Community Defense

How Local Activists are Interrupting Big Tech AI Investments

unicornriot.ninja/2025/data-ce...
Data Centers, the Climate Crisis, and Community Defense - UNICORN RIOT
As Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright claims you should “build data centers” if “you want low electricity prices,” more than 200 environmental organizations have joined to “demand a halt to the bui...
unicornriot.ninja

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
ps. writing is my way of metabolizing so that these everyday encounters don’t stay in my body and make me sick, so thx for reading🤲🏾

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
Better yet, ACT up… like beloved Ms. Satterfield, who has experienced the absolute worst and best of this town and continues to be a beacon for so many of us. www.princetonmagazine.com/shirley-satt...
up.like

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
As Toni Cade urged us: “Don’t leave the arena to the fools.”

So speak up, good people, speak up.

Reposted by Suzanne Conklin Akbari

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
Importantly, those who witnessed the “anti-Semitic” moment looked shell shocked, embarrassed, or oblivious. But none intervened.

Too often, it seems, the malicious are assertive and the good are demure.

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
He was followed by someone who shared a fundraiser flyer for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund that his grandkids are helping to organize.

And the remaining convos were uneventful.
Photo of a flyer for “A night for Gaza holiday concert” on December 6 at 7pm at Hopewell train station.

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
Then I turned to the next person, who assured me in hushed tones, “Not ALL of us share his views…” followed by a question about how to address AI with his five grandkids.

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
“You’re fired” guy cut in front of other pol waiting to talk n I was determined not to let him steal my attn + energy. So I replied:

“We disagree.” Then checked his name tag, “I’ll be sure to tell the university you said I shld be fired.”

(So many things I thought about saying after the fact😶)

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
YALL. I was debating whether to even post this story, but then I realized I accidentally recorded this conversation!?Which I *never* have the foresight to do in these moments, and so I take it as a sign, or at least a nudge, that I’m supposed to share this ‘day in a life’ encounter with you.

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
Then, like clockwork, one of the first people to elbow forward after the talk followed the predictable script:

“You mentioned Gaza + Palestine, but no Hamas?! You’re anti-Semitic! And you shouldn’t have been put on probation—you should’ve been fired.”

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
But to my surprise I was greeted with interested nods, audible affirmations, periodic claps, and thoughtful questions. Kudos to the Old Guard!

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
• Bringing it full circle to Phoenix of Gaza XR—Palestinian technologists using immersive storytelling to resist violent erasure (see gazaxr.com)
Poster of “The Phoenix of Gaza” symposium Photo of an apartheid wall in Ramallah Palestine with CTRL + ALT + DELETE spray painted in blue on the wall

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
• Linking that technology companies’ role in past atrocities, including IBM’s facilitation of the Nazi Holocaust
Slide of book cover “IBM and the Holocaust” by Edwin Black on the left and an IBM punchcard used to collect “deadly data” on the right

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
So, at the Old Guard, I was expecting some predictable pushback to my discussion of:

• Smart weapons obliterating Palestinian life (see www.commondreams.org/news/big-tec...)
Slide of news article headline “Probes Reveal Depth of Big Tech Complicity in Israel’s AI-Driven Gaza Slaughter” underneath a dystopian imagine of a decimated Gazan landscape

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
But I’ve been doing this long enough, I’m used to audience glares, ppl walking out, disinvites, and even the president of Harvard ghosting a university-wide lecture + dinner his office invited me to after they presumably did a little “due diligence” digging into my background (see Tanner Lectures😏)

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
More people than expected chuckled and clapped at the “award.” But there were a few mean mugs too.🤨

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
After Ms. Satterfield’s intro, I joked with the audience that she left out one thing in my bio: that the university “awarded” me probation for standing with students protesting the Palestinian genocide.

*my gentle content warning for those who might not be familiar with my work and commitments

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
About 170 Old Guard members gathered at the Jewish Center, their usual meeting place. I recognized a dozen familiar faces from around town and enjoyed catching up before the talk.

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
So when one of my favorite people, Princeton public historian Ms. Shirley Satterfield, asked me months ago to speak with the Old Guard, my answer was: “What time?”
Photo of Ruha and Ms. Shirley Satterfield at the Jewish Center of Princeton after Ruha’s lecture

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
…or, like yesterday, visiting a virtual book club hosted by incarcerated readers (whose incisive reflections on Imagination blew me away!). www.liberationlive.org/lets-imagine
Let's Imagine! — Liberation Live!
nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
…facilitating community conversations at the public library…
Ruha speaking in front of an audience at the Princeton Public Library

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
This is one of many ways over the years that I’ve enjoyed teaching & learning beyond the university—summer storytelling at the community pool…
Ruha holding a book and reading a story in front of a group of children at the Princeton Community Pool

ruha9.bsky.social
Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Dec 3
"The purpose of the organization is to provide its members with an opportunity to enjoy good fellowship, preserve mental alertness, and maintain a lively interest in the arts and sciences as well as in community, national, and world affairs." www.theoldguardofprinceton.org